The role that reignited Kirsten Dunst’s passion for acting: “It wasn’t fulfilling me at all”
It’s easy to forget just how long Kirsten Dunst has been in the acting game. Even before her breakout role in Interview with the Vampire in 1994, she had several acting credits to her name, including alongside Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis in The Bonfire of the Vanities. Since then, she has racked up an impressive list of accolades, from popular blockbusters to auteur-led dramas to some classic teen comedies. Anyone who has seen Get Over It will appreciate her work immensely.
The downside to getting started so young is the possibility of burnout. Several former child actors have spoken out about the struggles they faced early in their career, including Saoirse Ronan, and Dunst has suffered for her art too. After the success of Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ movies – the first of which came out when she was just 20 – she felt like she was at something of a career crossroads. However, one film helped pulled her out of this downward spiral.
In 2010, she starred alongside Ryan Gosling in the romantic mystery movie All Good Things. Directed by Andrew Jarecki, the movie centres on the real-life story of Robert Durst, a wealthy New Yorker who becomes embroiled in a series of gruesome murders. The names of the characters were changed for the production, with Dunst playing ‘Katie McCarthy’, a stand-in for Durst’s wife Kathleen McCormack. She disappeared in 1982, with Durst being the prime suspect.
“I had to change it for myself, because the way I did it wasn’t working any more,” Dunst told The Gentlewoman about the way her career was going prior to All Good Things. “It wasn’t fulfilling me at all. I didn’t feel I had the tools to go deeper into a role. And that kind of acting where you just go with your instincts isn’t enough. So I took one script to every major acting teacher in New York and LA, and I worked with each one on the same material. And then I found my person through that, and I’ve worked with her ever since.” This ‘person’ turned out to be Greta Seacat, daughter of renowned acting coach Sandra Seacat.
This marked the beginning of a new phase in Dunst’s career. She began her working relationship with Lars von Trier around this time, branching out into more obscure indie productions as well as a number of short films. She even directed her own short, Bastard, in 2010.
All Good Things had consequences far beyond the reinvigoration of Dunst’s career. The real Robert Durst got in touch with Jarecki after the film came out and agreed to be interviewed by him for a documentary. During the production of The Jinx, new evidence came to light about the murder of his friend Susan Berman. Durst was eventually convicted of killing her in 2021. He was later charged with the murder of McCormack, but died before any progress could be made. Her death officially remains a mystery.
Not only did All Good Things catch a murderer, but it also restored Dunst’s love for acting, which is arguably more important.
